


Trying One More Time

by CharlotteStilinski



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - No Hale Fire, Derek is in high school, Derek is still a wolf, Everyone Is Alive, M/M, lots of lacrosse, rated m for possibility in the future might go up, scott doesnt get the bite, sterek, theres a lot of swearing in this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-20
Updated: 2014-05-11
Packaged: 2018-01-20 04:37:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 19,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1496908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CharlotteStilinski/pseuds/CharlotteStilinski
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles really didn't want to be on bench again but of course he's back on bench for another year. That is until Derek freaking Hale, the guy Stiles' has been obsessed with for the past year, states he wants Stiles on the team. Derek starts to privately train Stiles so he can make first line instead of a freshmen. Of course Stiles isn't sure if this is a good thing or bad thing, he tries to go for good and hopes he can control himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“I swear I’m gonna make first line this year” Scott said, as he and Stiles walked through the double doors into their high school.

“Dude, you have asthma” Stiles replied, rolling his eyes and walking over to his locker,

“So?” Scott questioned, leaning against the lockers next to Stiles’,

“I don’t know, something tells me they won’t let you play if you have to breathe through an inhaler every 15 minutes!”

“My asthma is better than it was, I can go way longer than that” Scott said, moving to his locker when Stiles was done, “I swear to you I’m going to get first line, you just wait.”

“Of course you are” a rather sarcastic voice from behind Scott said,

“Oh shut up Isaac, I bet you won’t” Scott muttered back.

“Okay both of you can shut up because we all-” Stiles suddenly cut himself off when Derek, Jackson and they’re little group walked passed,

“You need to stop gawking at Derek or he’s going to think you’re weird” Scott laughed,

“As if he doesn’t already” Stiles said, rubbing his hand over his face,

Isaac hummed in agreement and then added “If I remember correctly, you fell on your face during lacrosse practice the first time he looked at you”

“Yeah thanks for the reminder” Stiles muttered.

* * *

 

At the end of the day, Scott, Stiles and Isaac headed to the lacrosse try outs, each hoping for a different thing. Isaac wanted to be in goal but since that usually went to Danny he hoped for at least some sort of defensive position, Scott wanted to be on first line and Stiles just hoped he wouldn’t get put on the bench again.

Of course there were already a few on the team that wouldn’t have to try out again, Derek, Jackson, Ethan, Aiden, Boyd and Danny’s positions were safe. This meant these six would be on one team, while the others trying out would be up against them.

“We’re screwed” Stiles said, feeling defeated. He knew he would never be able to get passed any of them to even have a chance at scoring.

“Speak for yourself” Isaac smirked. Then coach blew the whistle and all hell broke loose. There were ten people trying out for the team over all, most of them freshmen and sophomores. Only four of them would make it onto the team and then another two of them would be made reserves. This meant there would be four not getting anything and Stiles did not intend to be one of those four.

Scott had managed to score three goals and Isaac had managed to defend their goal from Jackson and Aiden a couple of times, Stiles knew this would pretty much get them on the team. Stiles had caught the ball a total of 4 times and each time, he had tried to make a run for the goal he got knocked back by Ethan, Boyd or Jackson. The fifth time he had caught the ball he was further forward than before and closer to the goal than any other members of his team, Stiles even had a clear view of the goal with only Derek in his way. Stiles made a run for it, he knew he had to get a goal and not let Derek distract him, most of the people in his team had managed to score at least once except two freshmen. If he even wanted to get on bench he’d have to get this.

As Stiles approached Derek he saw him look back at Danny, who was in goal and nod. Stiles thought it was strange but he had to concentrate. Derek started running towards Stiles slowly and Stiles knew in that moment, he was fucked. If Derek wanted to stop someone, he could. Stiles kept running though, trying to go for Derek’s side in a hope he could just pass him. As he was just about to hit into Derek’s left side, Derek lifted his left arm out of the way letting Stiles pass without a hiccup. This of course, put Stiles out a little and he stumbled but quickly recovered. Stiles positioned his lacrosse stick above his head and made the shot, he knew Danny was a good, really good and the chances of it actually getting in the goal were slim. But it did, he scored and the whistle blew to indicate the game was over.

The next thing Stiles knew there was a large force spinning him round and knocking their helmets together.

“We scored, we both scored” Scott chanted, continuing to knock their helmets together,

“We did, we did” Stiles repeated, the sudden realisation setting in and he hit his helmet against Scott’s again. When their excitement died down, they watched as Coach Finstock sat on bleachers with his clipboard deciding who would make the team.

“Did you see me?” Stiles asked, and quickly added, “When I scored the goal?”

“Yeah kind of, well I just saw you shoot” Scott replied happily, “Why?”

“It’s just that Derek looked like he was going to stop me but then I swear he let me pass” Stiles whispered to Scott so no one else would over hear. In his head he kept replaying the situation over and over again. Stiles knew, after watching all of lasts year’s games on the bench, that there was no way he could have gotten passed Derek unless Derek had wanted him to. So that nagging question would always pop into Stiles’ head, why would Derek let him pass?

Stiles didn’t have long to think about that before the coach came towards them holding a piece of paper in his hand. He started to reel off names, those who got on the team and those who didn’t.

“Lahey” the coach announced, “You made defence”. Stiles and Scott both clapped Isaac on the back at that,

“McCall” the coach said and Stiles bit his lip, he knew how hard Scott had worked to make first line and there was only one spot available after Coach had given the other place to some freshman. Stiles prayed to all the gods that this would go to Scott. “You made first line, congratulations.”  Scott turned and looked at Stiles witch possibly the largest smile Stiles had seen from anyone, ever.

“I made first line, I made first line. Me.” Scott said, and all Stiles could do was ruffle Scott’s hair.

“Stilimpskie” the couch said,

“Actually, it’s Stilinski” Stiles corrected,

“Shut up, Stiles” the coach said back, “You’re on the bench again”

Scott just bumped him on the shoulder and said something like “at least you’re on the team”. But Stiles still felt disappointed, it’s not like he ever imagined he’d make defence but it still would have been better than being on the bench for a whole year. As everyone grabbed their stuff and headed into the changing rooms, Stiles noticed Derek sat on the bleachers, messing with the strings on his lacrosse stick.

“Hey, I’m gonna stay behind a minute” Stiles said, waving Scott and Isaac off as they kept going back towards the school. Stiles started to walk towards Derek but then froze as he realised who he was about to try and talk to. The grumpy, cold, stoic but very, very attractive Derek Hale who never seemed to want to talk to anyone, who he had been almost obsessed with for the last year. Stiles took a deep breath and closed the distance between where he was and the bleachers,

“Uhm, hey, Derek” Stiles managed to get out, only stumbling over the words a couple of times. His voice had drawn Derek’s attention who was now looking at him expectantly and slightly annoyed. Or that could be his usual constipated facial expression, Stiles couldn’t tell. “I was wondering why you let me pass you earlier on the field? I know you could have stopped me if you wanted to, like the whole of last year I’ve seen you stop guys like double my size so uhm”. Stiles quickly stopped himself when he realised he was rambling.

“I decided to let you get through because I would much rather have you on my team than half those other idiots, especially the freshmen who hasn’t even seen the way we play before and doesn’t know our tactics” Derek said, giving his attention back to his lacrosse stick, “But still that idiot freshman got the place on first line.”

“I’m sorry you got stuck with the freshman” Stiles muttered, he couldn’t help but feel even worse for not getting that place on first line now, “Scott’s good though, he was on bench with me last year and I explained to him all your tactics.”

 “It’s not your fault” Derek muttered, although he seemed pretty pissed, “But you are going to put in lots of extra practice time so I can convince coach to switch you with the freshman. I want you to do this before our first game; I really don’t want to have to explain my strategies to some newbie on the year I’ll hopefully get my scholarship. Can you do that?”

“Uh, yep, yeah I can do that. I won’t let you down.  I promise. I’ll get Scott and Isaac to help me out. It will be fine I swear. You’ll get that scholarship you want and everything.” Stiles said, having to stop himself when he realised he was rambling again.  Derek simply grunted in reply and Stiles took that as his queue to get out of there. Stiles is pretty sure Derek is the scariest person Stiles has ever talked but somehow that didn’t make him less attractive. As he headed back to the locker room he realised he had three weeks until the first game. And in that moment he swore he was screwed.


	2. Chapter 2

After explaining to Scott and Isaac what Derek had said neither of them had much hope that it could be done but had agreed to help. That’s why the Saturday after the three of them where stood on the lacrosse field, rather than doing whatever they would usually do on a Saturday. They had been practicing every day that week, Stiles was pretty sure he was improving but he didn’t think he was improving quick enough. After a practice session earlier that week, with the whole team, he had seen why Derek didn’t want the freshman, Matt, on the team. The guy was cocky and hadn’t followed any of Derek’s strategies and broke out of the beginning formations too quickly.

About an hour through their practice, Derek had appeared out of the woods, which Stiles thought was really fucking weird and had sat on one of the bleachers to watch them. If his judging face was anything to go by, Stiles was pretty sure he was being assessed. After another hour, they decided to call it a day and Derek started to walk towards them.

“Is he doing okay?” Scott asked Derek. Before Scott would have been almost as nervous about asking someone like Derek such a casual question. After all he was the most popular kid in the school and they really weren’t. Well they hadn’t been until Scott made first line and Isaac made defence, now they were sitting at tables with the rest of the lacrosse players, along with Lydia and her new friend Allison. Scott’s self-confidence had boosted and somehow Isaac had managed to get even cockier than before. They were popular now, or at least Scott and Isaac were. Stiles was about 100% sure that he was now just Scott’s dorky, clumsy friend that only got to go anywhere near Jackson and Derek’s group because of Scott and Isaac. He didn’t mind though, as long as he was near Derek was good enough for him. Especially since it was easier to look at Derek now.

“Improving but not fast enough” Derek said bluntly, confirming Stiles’ suspicions,

“We’re trying our best” Isaac muttered,

“Yes, well it isn’t good enough” Derek snapped back, and quickly rubbed his temples. Sure Derek was hot but Stiles couldn’t help but think he could be a complete jerk sometimes. Although he wasn’t sure he had heard Derek talk about anything other than lacrosse so he probably couldn’t make a fair judgement.

“Well what can we do then?” Scott asked, clearly irritated,

“Obviously nothing now” Derek said, something that sounded a lot like stress ebbing into his voice, “I’ll train Stiles from now on”

“What?” Stiles said stuttering a little bit, he wasn’t sure Derek training him was going to help at all,

“Matt is useless, he won’t follow any of my strategies. He thinks he knows better and is going to completely fuck up my chances of getting that scholarship if we don’t win all the games because he messes up.” Derek snapped again, “The kid needs a good year on the bench before he can play. And since you are not learning quick enough with your friends. I will be training you, every day after school and every Saturday. You can Sundays off. Fair?”

“Yes. Fine.” Stiles said. He didn’t really thing it was fair at all, but he’d go with it.

Stiles spent most of that Sunday doing the whole weeks homework in one day, he had no idea how he was going to be able to handle this for the next two weeks and however much longer Derek wanted to keep this going. By the time Monday lunch time hit, he was exhausted. The last thing he wanted to do that day was go and practice lacrosse with Derek, for the first time. He wanted to make a good impression and not completely fuck up just because he was tired. Stiles took his usual place on at lunch, next to Scott who was sitting next to Allison and trying his hardest to subtly flirt. Thankfully, for Scott’s sake, Allison seemed to like him as much as he liked her. The only people currently at the table were Scott, Allison, Lydia and Danny. Stiles hoped Derek wouldn’t show up to lunch so he couldn’t see how tired Stiles was. But no, of course Stiles wouldn’t be that lucky. Apparently he was the most unlucky person in the world (or the other half of him was telling him he was the luckiest) because Derek came and say directly opposite him. Of course that attracted some funny looks from some of the others, but they all brushed it off and probably added it to their own personal lists of ‘Strange Things Derek Hale Does’.

“Practice, after school today on the lacrosse field, okay?” Derek asked, bluntly. Stiles was starting to think that Derek probably couldn’t have a conversation outside of lacrosse since his social skills seemed to be atrocious.

“Uh, yep sounds good” Stiles stuttered out. He hated the fact he still stumbled over his words around Derek. Stiles had to try and hold back any yawns that might want to escape from him that lunch since Derek didn’t seem to want to move. When Isaac came over, of course he was a complete douche about the whole thing and made some suggestive had gestures to Stiles from behind Derek. Stiles hoped no one saw and tried to hide his embarrassment as much as humanly possible.

By the time the end of the day rolled around Stiles felt like he could fall asleep standing up, which of course wouldn’t be a good idea since Derek would probably kill him if he was late. Stiles hurried from his last class, to the locker room and quickly changed into his lacrosse gear. When he got out onto the field Derek was already waiting in his lacrosse uniform, of course he was.

“You ready?” Derek asked, when Stiles finally reached him and Stiles nodded as enthusiastically as possible. The first thing Derek had him do was three laps around the field and Stiles hardly doubted he would make it passed one. Stiles, miraculously made it around all three times without passing out from exhaustion, it wasn’t his best though.

“You’re quick” Derek commented, looking down at his stop watch, “well quicker than most people on the team anyway which is good”

“Thanks” Stiles said, he suspected that was the closest thing to a compliment he was ever going to get. He just wished he hadn’t been so tired though, he could have done better. “Years of running from the law, it’s got me trained”

“Isn’t your dad the sheriff?” Derek asked sceptically,

“Yeah, I over hear a lot of the phone calls he gets and naturally I usually head to the crime scenes that sound interesting” Stiles said, and Derek still had that same look of confusion on his face, “so then I usually end up running from which ever deputy sees me there.”

To Stiles surprise Derek actually look concerned that Stiles would do stuff like that but quickly brushed it off when he told Stiles to do twenty push ups and then they would practice his shooting. Stiles barely managed to get through the push ups and then Derek was throwing a lacrosse stick at him before heading into the goal.

“Just do your best” Derek shouted from the goal. After that and the possible compliment earlier Stiles was starting to think Derek wasn’t as much of Jerk as he had thought.

Stiles was starting to feel weak from how tired he was, he made his first shot and the ball barely made it to the goal. Derek caught the first three easily, when it came time for Stiles to shoot for a fourth time he started to feel shaky and a bit ill.

“Derek, can we please call it a day?” Stiles asked, leaning against his lacrosse stick,

“No, keep going. We’ve only been here for an hour.” Derek said, “Just shoot some more.”

Stiles tried to his very best to get the ball to the goal but it fell short and Derek looked extremely unimpressed. But then the dizziness started to overwhelm him, he felt like everything was spinning. Derek started to go blurry and he couldn’t make out what Derek was yelling at him. The next thing he knew Derek was shoving a bottle of water at his mouth,

“Shit, drink this” Derek muttered, one hand around Stiles’ shoulder to hold him in a sitting position. Stiles did what he said and drank half the bottle of water in one, his vision started to clear up and he felt less dizzy. “You feeling okay?”

“If I say yes, will you make me carry on?” Stiles asked, he was feeling much better than he did a couple of minutes ago. Just a bit nauseous and could feel a headache about to start.

“No” Derek said and laughed slightly, actually laughed. It felt like music to Stiles’ ears. “C’mon, let’s get to back to the locker room”. Derek hitched one of his arms under Stiles’ and helped him walk back up to the locker room. Stiles would be a liar if he said it didn’t feel nice to have Derek’s side pressed up against his and he was starting to think that these practice session wouldn’t be so bad after all.

When they got back to the locker room, Derek sat Stiles down on one of the benches and made him drink the rest of the water. While Derek leant against the lockers staring at Stiles with his eyebrows furrowed.

“Honestly, I’m fine. I was just so tired before we even started today” Stiles said, being the attention of Derek’s gaze for so long was making him feel uncomfortable. “I just want to have a go home, have a shower and sleep for the next three days.”

Derek didn’t seem convinced but he clearly didn’t know what else he could do so he simply nodded and headed round to his own locker. Stiles felt relieved that Derek had dropped it, and started packing up his stuff. Stiles was almost done when he looked over to where he heard footsteps and then saw Derek getting in the showers, with just a towel on. _Just a towel!_ Stiles chocked on his own spit and quickly gathered up the reminder of his stuff shoved it into his bag and hurried out the door, before he popped a boner in the middle of the locker room. Stiles pretty sure he heard Derek laugh as he hurried out the door without so much as a goodbye and Stiles really didn’t want to think about how weird he looked rushing out the door straight after seeing Derek get in the shower.

On second thoughts, this really was not going to be good for Stiles’ health.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!! I really appreciate it and you are awesome. Again any comments would be really appreciated since this is my first fic, so if you have anything to say go ahead. (I decided to post this chapter so soon because I didn't really like how little content was in the first one, cant say this one is much better though.)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For me, looking back at this chapter, it feels short and a waste of time but I need it in there just for one specific part of conversation. I'll probably put the next chapter up later today, since it will be the longest chapter out of what I've got so far and I hope it will make up for this.

The next day at lunch was not as awkward as Stiles thought it might have been. Derek took the seat opposite Stiles again, to Jackson, Boyd and Erica’s annoyance. Derek usually sat opposite Jackson in the middle of the table witch Erica and Boyd on his left, that’s just how it was. They didn’t seem to like the face their best friend was choosing to sit near Stiles at the end of the table (Stiles always figured he sat there because no one actually wanted him at the table) instead of them.

“Glad to see you didn’t die on your way home” Derek joked, as he sat opposite Stiles, who thought it was nice to see Derek laid back and calm for once. He thought maybe the day before had broken the ice between them a bit.

“C’mon I wasn’t that bad” Stiles said, “Was I?”

“Well you kind of turned completely white at one point” Derek said around the sandwich he was eating,

“That’s because you’re a slave driver” Stiles muttered and Derek snorted,

“You hardly did anything” Derek said, “Get more sleep for the rest of the practices”

“Yes, I know that now” Stiles said and smiled at Derek who just rolled his eyes but smiled back. They eat the rest of their lunch in a comfortable silence. Stiles never imagined he would on good enough terms with Derek freaking Hale to have a normal conversation with him.

Practice at the end of the day was with the whole team, the coach told them they would be practicing their shooting that day and Danny would be in goal. Stiles had absolutely no idea how he would score against Danny but he would give it a shot, pun intended. As they all lined up, Stiles being pushed to the back as always, he saw Derek speaking to Danny by the goal and then ran to join the line behind Stiles. He was going to ask what that was all about but figured it was none of his business.

Danny managed to save some of the shots and missed others mainly ones from the best shooters. To Stiles’ delight he missed Scott’s but managed to save Matt’s and then it was Stiles’ turn. He knew he had no hope but did his best; he ran forward and launched the ball as hard as he could at the goal from his lacrosse stick. Somehow Danny missed it, Stiles turned around to give Derek the most excited smile and he tried to communicate ‘look I have improved’ through just his facial expression. Derek just nodded back, although he looked kind of guilty which Stiles thought was weird but brushed it off. Stiles managed to make his next two shots without Danny saving either one of them and when he made his third, which he didn’t even try that hard with, it hit him that Derek might have told Danny to miss Stiles’ to make Matt look bad. When it hit him, he got a sudden sinking feeling in his gut that he probably hadn’t improved at all.

“Did you tell Danny to let me score on all my shots?” Stiles asked when Derek joined the back of the line after his turn, disappointment making his way into his voice. Derek didn’t even answer, he just looked very guilty and Stiles knew it was a yes.  “Why didn’t you just tell me? I thought I was actually doing better!”

“Stiles, I’m sorry” Derek said, “I just need to Matt off the team”

“So you’re not going to let me do that by actually getting better then?” Stiles muttered angrily, “Just by cheating?”

“Look, I didn’t mean to offend you, it just seemed like the easier option right now” Derek tried to explain, “You haven’t improved as much as I want yet, so I thought this would be a better way to get Matt off first line”

“You’re a dick” Stiles said, taking off his lacrosse helmet and gloves, thankfully coach blew the whistle to indicate practice was over at that very moment so he could walk back up to the locker room without it looking like he was storming off.

When everyone got into the locker room, he sat on the bench by his, Scott’s and Isaac’s locker.

“You alright, dude?” Scott asked, as Stiles to rub his temples with his fingers. When he didn’t get a reply Scott added, “You did really great out there”

Stiles wanted to yell about what had happened but he couldn’t because he couldn’t let anyone else know what Derek was doing or he’d get in trouble. Stiles just felt so hurt that he wasn’t really improving, he thought the work he’d put in so far might of actually paid off but apparently not. Stiles hadn’t realised he had been sat on that locker room bench for so long until Scott had told him that he and Isaac were leaving unless they wanted him to wait. Stiles had told them to go on and then realised he was alone in the locker room. Or at least he thought he was until he was halfway through getting changed when he suddenly heard on one of the lockers near him. Stiles quickly whirled around to see Derek leaning against one of the lockers; Stiles just rolled his eyes and went back to getting changed.

“I’m sorry” Derek said again, and he actually sounded sincere,

“No you’re not” Stiles said, “All you care about is that scholarship and I get it, a scholarship is important”. Derek huffed and pushed himself one of the lockers and sat next to where Stiles was now packing up some of his stuff.

“You don’t get it though” Derek said, grabbing Stiles’ arm so he would play attention to him, “Playing lacrosse professionally is my dream, my parents don’t seem to think that’s a reasonable career goal if they’re going to have to pay for me to do it in college. So they told me that if I got this scholarship then they’d let me go and do that but if I don’t have to do my other option which is the police academy which they will pay for. They seem to believe being is cop is a more reasonable lifestyle than a lacrosse player and I can’t really blame them”

Stiles started to say something but Derek quickly cut him off, “But that doesn’t excuse what I did today, I shouldn’t have made you think you were improving enough to score against Danny. I really am sorry.”

“You should have just told me all of that, okay?” Stiles said, he kind of felt bad for Derek. Stiles knew how much he loved lacrosse and Stiles figured having his future balancing on getting that scholarship much be a lot of pressure.  “Now, we have to try and get Matt off first line as soon as possible, yeah?” Stiles then lightly punched Derek again to show they were still okay and Derek ruffled his hair back.

Even after their little argument Derek still continued to sit opposite Stiles at lunch every day that week and they would practice every single day after school until Stiles felt like his limbs were going to fall off. While Stiles was doing the ridiculously hard training, he found out that Scott and Allison were now together. Stiles was pretty pissed Scott wouldn’t give him any details about how, why, when and where but he seemed pretty smug. By Friday Stiles thought he might actually have a chance at getting a spot on first line and most importantly he thought he might even be able to consider Derek one of his friends. 

That day at lunch Stiles was a bit late since one of the teachers had decided to hold him back for falling asleep in class, when he got there he could see the table a little way in front of him and noticed Derek was back in his usual place in the middle of the table. Stiles stomach dropped slightly, but he told himself he was being stupid, after all it was just a seat. But then as he got closer he saw that the seat next to Derek, where Danny usually sat was empty and Danny was sat a seat over. Stiles suddenly started to panic slightly that there was someone new who was going to sit on the table and they were just dropping Stiles off it like dead weight. That was until Derek looked at Stiles and smiled expectantly that he realised the seat had been left for him. Stiles sat down, opposite Lydia and Jackson and he could practically feel Jacksons glare boring into him. That was until Derek cleared his throat from next to Stiles and he noticed Derek glaring at Jackson except Derek’s glare was much more intimidating. Overall the whole thing was just awkward. Stiles looked over at Scott, witch his best pleading expression but both Scott and Allison were watching with a shared amusement. Stiles could help but think they were both ridiculously cute together. Lydia, who had just seemed completely done with the whole situation apparently got bored with it quite quickly and started talking to Jackson so his attention wouldn’t be on Stiles anymore.

“Sorry about that” Derek said, quite enough no one else could hear except Stiles,

“It’s okay but I have this suspicion that Jackson doesn’t want be sat hear” Stiles said and Derek started laughing. Which apparently was a rare thing to every one bar Stiles since Erica, Boyd, Jackson and Danny actually seemed quite shocked to see him laugh, but quickly went back to their own conversations when he glared at them all. Stiles actually felt pretty smug that he could make Derek laugh or at least smile on a regular occurrence and slightly sad at the same time that Derek didn’t have friends that could do that.

Derek started to ask Stiles about how his dad was doing, since two days before Stiles had started ranting about how the Sheriff wasn’t eating right. Stiles was surprised Derek would be interested, or even listened when he talked about it before but told him anyway. Then they started to talk about small things, nothing important and nothing about lacrosse. It was one of the first times they’d had a proper conversation without it being about lacrosse. To Stiles’ surprise and joy, Derek had actually seen the Star Wars movies, unlike Scott and maybe even liked them as much as he did. Practice that day, went to Stiles’ joy pretty quickly. They just practiced some shooting and tried to see how good Stiles was at avoiding being knocked over.

“So how is this Saturday training going to work?” Stiles asked, when they finished up,

“Well, I figured your stamina could use some work so we’re gonna do some cross country”

“Are you being serious?” Stiles asked, he hated cross country, he was pretty sure everyone hated cross country. Derek just gave Stiles that ‘what do you think?’ look. “But what about all those deaths? You know the animal attacks”

“That’s why we’re doing it on my family’s land” Derek explained,

“Oh yes because animals really respect those private property signs” Stiles said, and Derek rolled his eyes at Stiles,

“It will be fine” Derek said, as they walked back up to the locker room, “We won’t do it when it’s really hot though so I’ll pick you up at about four?”

“Yeah that sounds good” Stiles said, he would have been nervous about going into the woods to run after all the animal attacks but Stiles was kind of stuck and the fact Derek said he will pick Stiles up. He had no idea why but it made his stomach turn happily.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This the longest chapter I've written! I hope you enjoy it and don't get to bored. Any comments are welcome, I'd love to hear what you think.

When Stiles woke up on Saturday it was at 3pm (he had stayed up stupidly late the night before) and his dad was pulling open the curtains. Stiles just groaned and tried to hide under his duvet,

“It’s already three pm and I’m pretty sure you told me you were getting picked up in an hour” his father informed him, “so you need to get up”

Stiles sat upright and bolted into the shower, he can’t believe he had slept in for so long. When he got out of the shower he threw on a pair of old jeans and a loose t-shirt, he had left his track suit in his locker the day before. He was just sorting out his hair when he heard a knock at the door,

“Shit” he muttered. He had told his dad that he was going to practice lacrosse but he hadn’t told him it was with Derek Hale. The now senior, who just the year before he could shut up about how amazing Derek was and he was ninety nine percent sure his dad knew about that crush and if he didn’t, then Stiles would start to doubt whether his father should be the sheriff. Stiles tried to run out of his room to get the door but it was too late, his dad was already there.  Stiles managed to peer over the bannister to watch how badly this was going to go, he at least had the decency not to be down there when his dad said something embarrassing.

“Good afternoon or evening, Sheriff” Derek said, “I’m here to pick up Stiles for lacrosse practice”

“Oh right, of course” the Sheriff said, “he’ll be down in a minute, come in”

Derek did and closed the door behind him; Stiles could see him peering at all the pictures on the walls,

“I was just expecting Scott or Isaac” his dad said, ushering Derek into the living room to wait for Stiles. So Stiles quickly went back into his room to finish trying to sort out his unruly hair, then his dad was walking into his room.

“You didn’t tell me Derek Hale was helping you train” his dad stated, raising an eyebrow, “or as I recall the Derek Hale you couldn’t seem to shut up about the whole of last year and yet apparently didn’t know you existed and now you are spending your Saturday with him and who is a senior, huh?”

“Oh my god dad” Stiles said, sounding completely exasperated, “he’s just trying to help me get first line, you don’t need to go threatening him with your shotgun.” At that Stiles quickly rushed passed his dad and downstairs,

“Sorry about that, I woke up late” Stiles said, smiling at Derek who was sat in the living room, “you ready to go?”

“Stiles, you haven’t even eaten yet” his dad said coming down the stairs. Derek raised an eyebrow at him as if to ask how late he slept in.

“I’ll be fine” Stiles said, trying to head to the door,

“No you won’t” Derek muttered, still stood in the living room with his arms crossed across his chest, “you should eat something first.” All Stiles could do was look at him like he had been betrayed, so he quickly made himself a sandwich, awkwardly ate it at the kitchen counter and then hurried Derek out the door.

“Holy shit, is that your car?” Stiles asked, looking at the black Camaro parked on their street,

“Yeah” Derek said proudly, “haven’t you seen it before?”

“No!” Stiles said, practically running up to the car to look at it, “did your parents get it for you?”

“Yeah on my sixteenth” Derek said, watching as Stiles walked full circle around the car, “Is that yours over there?”

Stiles looked over at the old blue jeep Derek was looking at, it wasn’t anything compared to Derek’s car,

“Yeah, in exactly one week, I will get to drive it” Stiles said happily, hopping into the passenger side of Derek’s car as Derek got into the driver’s side, “God I’m so jealous of this car”

When they reached the Hale estate they drove down a dirt track and parked in a little spot in the woods,

“Are you sure we aren’t going to get eaten by a rabid animal?” Stiles asked after they got out of the car,

“It’ll be fine Stiles, stop worrying” Derek said, waving him into the woods,

“Do we have to run?” Stiles whined, as Derek started to jog and Stiles had to do the same to keep up, “We could hike this time and then run next week?”

“Fine” Derek said slowing down, to a walking pace,

“Really?” Stiles didn’t actually think that would work,

“But we’re hiking back to the house, I was going to make you go that far while running” Derek said and smirked when Stiles groaned. Stiles was glad though, it allowed him to get to know Derek better. He asked him all his favourite bands and singers were, turns out they had a few in common like Ed Sheeran and Fall Out Boy. Also to Stiles’ delight Derek seemed to have a very similar movie taste to him, neither Scott or Isaac could appreciate a good fantasy movie. They talked some more about family and even ended up on the subject of classes. Stiles told Derek who some of his teachers were and Derek gave him advice on how to really annoy some of them.

“We’re almost back now” Derek said, as Stiles’ breath started to get heavier and he wasn’t talking as much,

“Thank god” he managed to get out, “I think I’m about to burst a lung, so who is going to be home?”

“My mum and dad will be. I think Laura will, she goes to uni in Cali so usually comes back on weekends and Cora will be, she’s a junior but goes to a school for the gifted and talented” Derek said the last part in air quotes, “Oh and my uncle Peter lives with us to but I don’t know if he’ll be in”

When they reached the house, Stiles suddenly realised the Hales’ must have a fair amount of money, their house was huge and they seemed incapable of owning old cars since all the cars parked outside were knew.

“Nice house” Stiles said, as they reached the porch,

“You’ve never seen my house either?” Derek asked, looking confused, “There’s always a party here after the games, loads of people go”

“I know, I’ve just never been invited or told about them” Stiles shrugged, he got used it after the first couple of time it happened. Derek didn’t look very happy though.

“There’s going to be one after the game on Monday, you should come” Derek said, “And tell Scott and Isaac they are welcome to come to”

“Of course we’ll go thanks” Stiles said. Then Derek opened the front door and they both went through into the hallway. Stiles looked up at the big staircase that led to the second floor and then a person appeared, one of Derek’s sisters came running down the stairs and straight up to Stiles.

“You must be Stiles?” Cora said, hugging Stiles in greeting, “We’ve heard a lot”

“And this is my stupid little sister Cora” Derek said, glaring at her and she backed off slightly,

“Laura and mum are in the living room” was all Cora said in reply before heading back upstairs again.

 When they entered the living room Laura was slouched on the couch in front of the TV, Stiles remembered her as that ‘really popular senior that everyone wanted to be friends with’ when he was a freshman. It seemed Derek had taken that spot quite well. Derek’s mother, Talia, was sat in one of the armchairs with the coffee table in front of her, looking over a rather large amount of papers in front of her. It reminded Stiles of when his father would bring his cases back from the Sheriff’s office.

When they got into the room Talia looked up from her work and gave Stiles a large smile,

“You must be Stiles” she said, in an eerily similar tone to Cora, “It’s nice to meet you. Would you like to stay for dinner?  Derek said you two were training for lacrosse so I figured you’d be hungry”

“I’d love to, if that’s alright?” Stiles said, the question was directed at Talia but he looked up at Derek to make sure he was okay with it. Derek just smiled and Stiles took that as a yes.

“Of course it is dear” Talia said, “I’ll tell Hank so he knows”. Stiles presumed Hank was Derek’s father and who was making dinner.

“I’m Laura” Laura said, looking up at Stiles, “I think I remember seeing you in school a couple of times, were you on bench last year too?”

“Yeah I was” Stiles said, rubbing the back of his neck, he was surprised Laura even knew who he was and he didn’t really like being reminded how much he had been on bench.

“Well he won’t be on bench for much longer” Derek said, and he actually sounded kind of proud. Stiles thought it was probably because he had managed to get someone who had before been terrible at lacrosse to be vaguely decent. “And really Keeping Up With the Kardashians?”

“Oh shut up” Laura said, hugging the remote possessively against her chest as if Derek might try to change the channel. “I love this show, and we’re kind of like the Kardashians if you think about.”

Derek just snorted and turned to Stiles and rolled his eyes. Stiles was glad that he wasn’t the only victim of that eye roll.

“No, no, listen. Mum is like Khris because she’s the one in charge of the family. I’m Kim because let’s face it the only reason you’re popular is because I was. I didn’t do it by making a sex tap though. Cora is totally Khloe because she’s the different one in family but still completely a Hale. And your Kourtney because you’re a little bitch.”

Stiles could help the laugh that burst out of him on last part of the Laura’s explanation. It only increased the smug look on Laura’s face and they both got a glare from Derek.

“Right you just keep thinking that” Derek said, “But I’d rather not be associated with the Kardashians in any way”

“Oh whatever” Laura said and went back to watching the show. Stiles couldn’t help but look at the TV as well; he quite enjoyed the show even if he didn’t like the actual family that much.

“Oh god, are you actually watching it?” Derek asked, as he noticed Stiles fixation on the TV.

“What it’s not actually that bad” Stiles argued, “They’re all quite funny, everything Scott Disick says is gold”

“Thank you” Laura said, “I like you better than Derek already”

“That’s it” Derek said, grabbed Stiles’ arm and practically dragged him out of the room before Stiles could even protest. Stiles had been dragged back into the hallway and he followed Derek as he went upstairs.

“Where are we going?” Stiles asked,

“My room. If we’re going to watch TV until dinners ready then we are going to watch something decent” Derek said, opening one of the upstairs doors so Stiles could step through first.

“Nice room” Stiles said, as he looked around. The room was fairly large, there was a bed pressed in the far corner of the room with a TV in front of it. A large bookcase, filled with DVDs and CDs more than actual books. A desk with a very new computer on and neat stack of what Stiles presumed was school work. There was another door in the room that Stiles presumed led to an ensuite. The room was immaculately clean; there was nothing on floor unlike Stiles’ room which was littered with dirty clothes and an assortment of school work.

“Thanks” Derek said, and sat down on the edge of his bed. He started flicking through the channels on the TV and Stiles casually wandered over to Derek’s desk. He couldn’t help that he was extremely nosey, he always blamed it on his ADHD but he didn’t know if that was true. Stiles saw Derek’s scholarship application sat on top of a pile of books, he picked it up and started looking through it. He knows he probably shouldn’t but he was to intrigued not to,

“Why haven’t you mailed this yet?” Stiles asked, waving the application at Derek,

“The cut off isn’t for another two weeks yet” Derek shrugged, but then he noticed Stiles reading it, “I also don’t know what to write in the personal statement part. I don’t exactly have an interesting personality; I don’t do anything outside of lacrosse. Even Boyd didn’t know what I should write and he’s my best friend”

“I’m sure you’ll think of something and you’re a very interesting person” Stiles said, he wasn’t sure how reassuring that would coming from him. It also made Stiles sad to think that Derek didn’t like his own personality. There was plenty about Derek’s personality Stiles liked but that might just have been his huge crush making him like everything about Derek. “Says here you need four A’s? That seems like a lot on top of lacrosse, do you think you’ll get that?”

“Yeah, I think so” Derek shrugged, choosing a music channel and turning to face Stiles, “I’m getting A’s at the moment, academic stuff is actually fairly easy for me”

“Lucky you” Stiles muttered, still reading through the application,

“What about you?” Derek asked, “How are your grades?”

“They’ve been better” Stiles said, scratching the back of his head and putting the application down, “I’m not really finding the time to study or do any of the papers the teachers set”

Stiles tried to sound as unbothered about it as possible but Derek got a sudden guilty look on his face.

“It’s because of all the lacrosse practice isn’t it?” Derek asked, twisting his hands together. It was the first time Stiles had seen Derek out of his usual cocky, confident persona.

“No” Stiles said but Derek immediately furrowed his eyebrows. He could see straight through Stiles’ lie. “It’s okay though, I don’t mind. My dad might kill me when he sees my report card though”

“It’s not okay” Derek said, “I can’t let your grades suffer. From now on we’ll keep Monday, Tuesdays and Fridays for lacrosse but on Thursdays and Saturdays I could help tutor you can get your papers done, if you want?”

“Only if you’re sure” Stiles said, he wasn’t going to turn down spending time with Derek and especially if it wasn’t lacrosse practice. “I can’t do next Saturday though”

Stiles decided to sit on Derek’s bed, he found it hard to stand up for long periods of time without pacing and he thought it might make him look a bit weird.

“It’s my birthday” Stiles said, he probably sounded a bit too excited for teenage boy but Derek didn’t seem to notice, “Me, Scott and Isaac usually just order pizza and watch a movie”

“I suppose I’ll let you off then” Derek said, “You’re going to sixteen though, don’t you want a big party or something?”

“At the Sheriff’s house?” Stiles asked, “I don’t think any would show up knowing that they couldn’t drink or smoke weed or do whatever other illegal things people do. My dad would probably only just allow us to have one beer now”

“Fair point” Derek shrugged, “You’ll still have the lacrosse after party here, we could pretend that’s a party for your birthday”

Stiles just laughed. It was strange being sat in the room and talking casually with the guy he’d had a crush on for a year and half, and way out of league. But it was nice, Stiles knew he wasn’t going to get anywhere with Derek but it was nice to have him as a friend.

“You can come to, if you want?” Stiles quickly said,

“To my own lacrosse party?” Derek asked, sounding very confused,

“No, I meant to my birthday” Stiles said and tried his hardest not to blush, “At least that way we can out vote Scott and Isaac on a movie and I can watch something I actually want to watch”

“Sure” Derek said, “It’ll be nice to actually hang out with people who don’t make out all the time”

Stiles just raised an eyebrow in response to that,

“I spend most of my time with Boyd, Erica, Jackson, Lydia, Ethan and Danny. All couples, it gets kind of boring and they are never very social” Derek explained and Stiles understood. Whenever Stiles was with Scott recently Allison tended to be there and they usually just talked to each other rather than him.

“Yeah I get it” Stiles said, “Allison and Scott are the same but I still have Isaac. Even if we do spend most of our time insulting each other”

“So Saturday then” Derek said, changing the subject before it got to awkward, “What time?”

“Uhm about six-ish?” Stiles said, he hadn’t actually sorted this out with Scott and Isaac yet but he figured that would be fine.

The rest of the time at Derek’s went pretty quickly, he had dinner with the rest of the family and he found them all rather funny. They bickered a lot but Stiles thought it was nice, there had been an awkward moment though when Cora had asked, “Are your family equally as stupid as this?”

“It’s just me and my dad and I think my dad would consider me the stupid one. That’s with the amount of times I’ve been dragged out of the woods looking for whatever dead body my dad got a call about.” Stiles replied and they all laughed,

“Wouldn’t your mum say something about that?” Cora had added, she clearly didn’t know about Stiles’ mum and he wasn’t really sure who at the table did. He guessed Derek did from the way he gripped his fork harder and had a completely distressed look on his face.

“Oh no, my mum died when I was nine” Stiles said, he tried to say it as lightly as possible but something like that never fails to set a sad atmosphere over a room.

“And she was a wonderful person” Talia added and smiled at Stiles,

“You knew her?” Stiles asked expectantly, Stiles remembered his mum quite well but he liked to hear stories about her. His dad never really liked to say much because it hurt too much, but when Stiles was eleven Melissa had sat him down and told him lots of stories about his mum. He would be forever grateful for that, it helped him get some closure.

“We went to school together and worked in a shoe shop together once school had finished for a year” Talia smiled at the memory, “But then my family moved away for a bit and I went with them”

Stiles had just smiled, and then Hank changed the subject to relieve some of the tension in the air. Derek had just pressed his leg against Stiles’ under the table as what Stiles thought was a comforting gesture. Stiles smiled up at him appreciatively, he didn’t really need it but it was still a nice gesture to get.  After dinner Derek drove Stiles back home, they drove in a comfortable silence with Ed Sheeran playing in the background. Stiles would’ve said something but he was far too exhausted and he was putting all his energy into not falling asleep.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the interest in this fic. It was only meant to be a three part thing but its kind of gotten out of hand and there will be at least 10 chapters! Hope you enjoy!! :)

The next day he was startled awake by a large body jumping on him, he only saw that the culprit had a mop of light brown curly hair,

“Isaac, get the fuck off of me” Stiles said angrily. Isaac did get off of him, and stood next to Scott who was also in the room, “What are you guys doing here? Scott, I thought you were going to hang out with Allison today?”

“I am” Scott explains, “She’s downstairs at the moment; you’re the only one with a house free of parents today so we figured we’d all hang out here”

“Couldn’t you have done that without waking me up?” Stiles asked,

“Why? Did Derek keep you up last night?” Isaac asked, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively,

“Fuck off” Stiles said in reply, “Of course not, have you seen the guy? I’m surprised he’s even my friend”

“Oh please, he wants in your pants as much as you want in his” Isaac said, and Scott nodded in the back, “You’re literally the only person he isn’t his usual dark, cold, mysterious self to”

“Like I said before Isaac, fuck off” Stiles said pulling the covers back over his head, he knew Isaac was only fucking with him, “You know I was thinking about telling you that Derek had told me to invite you two to his party next Monday after the game but I might not now”

“Well you just told us so now we know we can go anyway” Scott said with a triumphant laugh and Stiles just groaned and tried to go back to sleep again. Stiles did get up though, when he finally got ready and got downstairs he found Allison and Scott curled up on one of the sofa’s watching TV and Isaac was playing on his ipad.

“Is anyone hungry or want a drink? Because if you are, you know where the fridge is” Stiles said and sat on the sofa Isaac was sat on. About an hour after Stiles got downstairs his dad got back from work for his lunch break,

“Afternoon” the Sheriff said, standing in the living room doorway,

“Afternoon Sheriff” Scott and Isaac said in sync, they had said it so many times before,

“Scott I didn’t realise you had a girlfriend” the Sheriff said, looking between Scott and Allison,

“Oh yeah, this Allison” Scott said, “Allison, Stiles’ father”

“Nice to meet you, Sheriff” Allison said, looking up from the TV and smiling at him,

“You must be Chris Argents daughter?” the Sheriff asked, “How are you finding Beacon Hills so far?”

“Good, I think it’s really nice here. It’s a nice change from a big city” Allison answered politely,

“Good” the Sheriff, “I’m just going to grab my lunch and go, you kids have fun and don’t get into trouble”

When he said the last part he looked directly at Isaac and Stiles, who both made exasperated faces. They went back to what they were doing before when Stiles heard his dad’s police radio go off from the kitchen. He and Isaac got out of their seats to peer round the door frame so they could hear better, Scott just rolled his eyes but Allison seemed to be trying to hide her curiosity. Stiles heard something about a dead body being found in the forest and looked at Isaac with wide eyes. Then the Sheriff came hurrying out of the kitchen and Stiles and Isaac practically jumped back onto the sofa.

“We should go check it out” Isaac and Stiles said in sync, and then high fived each other.

“You two in?” Stiles asked,

“Why do you to always have to go towards the danger?” Scott asked, rubbing a hand over his face,

“Is that a yes?” Isaac asked hopefully,

“Allison?” Scott asked, wanting to get her answer first but all she could do was nod excitedly, “Fine let’s go”

Allison was in the year above them so she was able to drive, they all got into her car and drove around the forest tracks until they were about 10 minutes away from the location Stiles had heard on the radio. The three of them jumped out of the car and headed in what they hoped was the right direction. After about twenty minutes of walking Scott started to complain they would never find anything, Scott was going to tell him to shut up but Allison beat him to it and that made him smile. The more time he spent with Allison the more he learned to like her. They kept walking for a bit longer and then Allison stopped them,

“Did you guys hear that?” she asked, they all shook their heads but remained quiet until they heard a howl, “That”

“Was that a wolf?” Scott asked,

“No it was pigeon” Stiles answered sarcastically, “What else could it be?”

“Maybe we should go” Isaac said, then they all saw something on their left move,

“Yes defiantly time to go” Scott said, he grabbed Allison’s hand and the two of them plus Isaac started to run back the way they came. Stiles being an idiot, decided to run in a different direction. He had never ran so fast in his life and he was pretty sure he could see something following him, the adrenaline kept he running for quite a while until he hit a fence. He quickly climbed over it and looked behind him; he couldn’t see or hear anything anymore but kept moving anyway. Stiles was running again but slower than before, the adrenaline wearing off and the fear kicking in. He suddenly realised he was running through the woods alone, with something that might have just killed someone possibly chasing him. He was almost in tears, and then he realised he _was_ crying. Stiles was pretty disappointed in himself, he thought he was tougher than that but usually he would had one of his dads deputy’s to drag him back home by now. Before he could think about what was possibly following for too much longer, he was suddenly pushed against a tree. As his back hit the tree he closed his eyes, fully prepared to be killed.

“Stiles?” a voice, that Stiles thought sounded a lot like Derek’s asked. The he realised the fence he climbed over must have been the Hales and his eyes shot open.

“Oh my god” Stiles said in relief, the moment he saw Derek.

“Are you okay?”  Derek asked, the concern evident in his voice. Stiles realised he must have still been crying and he quickly wiped his eyes.

“Yeah, now I am” Stiles said, smiling with the thought that he now might not be killed,

“What happened? Why are you here?” Derek asked quickly,

“I was with Scott, Allison and Isaac, we were looking for a dead body my dad got a call about” Stiles explained, trying to catch his breath at the same time, “Then we were in the woods and we heard a wolf, well a howl. Then we saw something and we started running, I got split up from them and I swear it was chasing me Derek, honestly I thought I was going to die”

Stiles voice wavered a little on the last part and he started to shake now all the adrenaline had worn off. He felt like he was going to collapse. Stiles was pretty sure he saw Derek’s eyes flash a yellow colour when he had mentioned the last bit but Stiles didn’t trust himself right now.

“It’s alright now, your safe” Derek said, reaching out his hand and putting it on Stiles’ shoulder. Stiles leant into it, and then he was being dragged into a hug. Derek held him for a few minutes and Stiles felt safe, he could feel himself calming down. Under any other circumstances he would be thinking entirely different things. Derek then pulled away, but kept one arm over Stiles’ shoulder,

“I’m going to take you home okay?” Derek said, it was the softest he’d ever heard Derek’s voice sound.  Derek led Stiles back to his car, it was a little way from the house and Stiles got into the passenger’s side,

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Derek asked, after he had started the car,

“Yeah, fine, just a little shaken I guess” Stiles said, twisting his hands together,

“Of course you are, that must have been pretty terrifying” Derek said sympathetically, “Hey, and don’t looking for dead bodies in the woods again okay?”

“I think after that I’ve now learnt my lesson” Stiles answered and laughed nervously. On the drive back to his house, Derek tried to distract Stiles with idle chat and it helped.  When they get back to Stiles house, there were two police cruisers outside and Allison’s car.

“Oh crap” Stiles said, turning to look at Derek, “I think my dad is literally going to kill me”

“I’m sure he won’t” Derek said, rolling his eyes at Stiles’ over dramaticness, “C’mon”

Derek jumped out of the car and Stiles soon followed, they both walked into the house together and the Sheriff came bustling out of the kitchen. The first thing he does is look relieved and then slightly annoyed,

“What the hell happened?” the Sheriff asked,

“Well, uh, haven’t the others explained?” Stiles answered, rubbing the back of his neck,

“Yes, but the last thing they saw you do is run further into the woods” the Sheriff said, running his hand through his hair, “I want to know what happened after that”

“Well, I’m pretty sure something was following me so I kept running, then I climbed over a fence, then Derek found me and probably saving my ass, by the way and now here we are” Stiles said briefly, he kind of just wanted to go to and lie on his face for a few days not explain everything over and over.

“At least you’re okay” his dad said, “but I kind believe you would be stupid enough to go and look for a dead body… actually I can believe you’re that stupid”

Two of the Sheriffs deputies had now joined them in the hallway and Stiles could just make out Isaac, Scott and Allison peering round the kitchen doorway.

“Dad, I’m fine” Stiles said, as if it would calm his father down,

“Yes I can see that” the Sheriff said, “I guess I should be thanking Derek for that”

“It’s no trouble” Derek said, and the Sheriff nodded appreciatively,

“As for you Stiles, you’re grounded for the next week” the Sheriff said,

“But I have to practice lacrosse so I can make first line and Derek said he would help tutor me to get my grades back up!” Stiles protested,

“Your grades are down now to?” the Sheriff asked, this time he just sounded completely exasperated, “Fine, but no birthday. You still get the jeep but that’s it, no can come over”

Stiles could just hear Scott protest something about how it was tradition but the Sheriff looked back to glare at him and he quickly shut up. Stiles went to protests but the Sheriff quickly added “nope, don’t say anything or I won’t let you get the jeep until next year”. That shut Stiles up pretty quick.

“Everyone you’re free to go home” the Sheriff said, heading back into the kitchen. The two deputies were the first out, then Scott, Isaac and Allison left pretty quickly, just giving their apologies before leaving.

“I’m sorry about your birthday” Derek said, smiling sadly at Stiles,

“It’s alright, just don’t say anything about your party around my dad until game day” Stiles said, he did not want to be stopped from going to that,

“Don’t worry I won’t” Derek said, patting Stiles’ shoulder, “See you tomorrow”

“Yeah see you tomorrow” Stiles said and waved Derek out the door, even though he really didn’t want to Derek to leave. He never wanted Derek to leave. Stiles was gone on that guy, he couldn’t even believe himself. 


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to apologise for any mistakes in my fic so far. I don't have a beta for my work and I'm not so good at picking out mistakes when reading my own work back. But thank you all for reading this much so far! I really appreciate it. Oh and if you want you can go follow me on Tumblr: teenwolfdirtbagbaby and i'll be sure to follow you back :) Thanks again for reading and commenting.

Monday passed without incident. Derek just spent most of the day checking Stiles was okay after the events of the day before. At lunch he kept asking questions like ‘are you sure you feel okay enough to still be in school?’ or ‘do you want to skip practice today?’ and he asked ‘are you okay?’ every time Stiles went quite. Derek let Stiles go from practice early that day, but they still ended up talking in the locker room for about an hour.

When Stiles got to the lunch table on Tuesday, the only people sat down were Jackson, Lydia, Danny, Erica and Boyd. Stiles slowly approached the table; he didn’t really want to sit there with just those five. Especially if they thought he was taking one of their friends away from them, when he got there he went to sit at his seat at the end of the table. But before he got there Jackson stopped him,

“Stilinski sit down” Jackson said, nodding to the seat opposite Lydia and next to Danny. Stiles heard Erica whisper ‘what the fuck is Jackson doing?’ to Boyd but all Stiles could think right now was ‘shit shit shit shit’. Stiles sat opposite Lydia, but all he really wanted to do was run away. Lydia did give him a sympathetic look from across the table, she didn’t seem to know what was going to happen. “What exactly do you think you are playing at?”

“What do you mean? I don’t know what you mean, I’m not playing at anything” Stiles babbled and Jackson glared at him harder,

“I mean this thing were you seem to think Derek is your friend, he’s just training you to get on front line. That’s it. He’s not your friend. You really think he would your friend? He’s just being nice so you will train harder, that’s all he wants. You on the team, if I had it my way you wouldn’t be.”  Jackson practically snarled at Stiles. Before he or anyone could say anything, Stiles got up and walked off. He felt like someone had just kicked him in the chest. The worst part about it Stiles put the dots together and it all seemed to make sense. Stiles spent the rest of his lunch in the library reading one of his text books and tried to forget about everything. It didn’t work though; he left halfway through to run to the toilet. He started to breathe heavily, his chest feeling to tight and horrible. He couldn’t stop the tears when they came and he suddenly realised this is what heartbreak. He recognised it as being a similar and much less painful version of what he felt when he lost his mother.

When the end of the day rolled around Stiles contemplated not showing up to practice that day, the whole team would be there so he thought he should if wanted any chance to get first line. Which coach would decide that day, if he does well enough. And Scott would just insistently question him if he didn’t show up.

As he entered the locker room he saw Jackson glaring at him and quickly looked down, he didn’t even want to know where Derek was. But apparently he wasn’t allowed that,

“Are you okay? Where were you today at lunch?” Derek said walking up to Stiles and sounding concerned. He was already in his uniform and looking at Stiles with furrowed eyebrows.

“I’m fine” Stiles snapped, turning around to get his stuff out of his locker, “I just didn’t want to go to lunch today.” Stiles figured the only way he was going to stop himself from crying around Derek was just push that heart crushing feeling away and to be angry instead. Derek just muttered a quite ‘okay’ and walked away. Stiles leaned back against his locker and closed his eyes, trying to compose himself. Then coach blew the whistle and told everyone to get on the field so Stiles quickly got ready and ran after the others. When he got there he saw Scott and Isaac and stood with them. For some reason Allison, Lydia and Erica were sat in the bleachers watching them practice. Stiles didn’t think too much of it and started to warm up.

“You alright?” Scott asked Stiles,

“Yeah I’m fine” Stiles said,

“Why does Derek keep looking at you like a distressed puppy then?” Isaac said, “I’ve never seen him look like that before”

“I don’t know and don’t really care” Stiles snapped, Isaac just raised an eyebrow at Scott who just shrugged. The coach announced that they would be practicing their dodging today, which meant one of the defences would be picked and each member of the team would see if they could avoid them and get to the goal. Derek was picked. Stiles wanted to die. He stood at the back of the line and just kept moving back. He really didn’t want to do this, to face Derek. He knew Derek would let him pass but he wasn’t prepared to have to look him in the face. Not yet. About halfway through the practice coach told them to take a break because Erica wanted to talk to Derek. Erica always got her way, even if it meant interrupting practice. Stiles sat on the grass by were Scott and Isaac were sat.

“I wonder what that’s all about” Scott said, gesturing to where Erica was stood talking to Derek.

“I don’t know but is it me or does Derek look like he’s get angrier and angrier?” Isaac asked, “I would not like to be Erica right now”

“JACKSON” Derek yelled across the pitch, he sounded pissed, really pissed. The shout drew everyone’s attention, including Stiles’. Derek had dropped his lacrosse stick and helmet to the floor and started to march over to Derek. Stiles stood up so he could see what was going on. Jackson also removed his helmet so he could talk to Derek properly.

“What?” Jackson said, Derek was still stood a meter or two away from Jackson with his fists clenched.

“Why did exactly did you tell Stiles that I wasn’t his friend and never would be?” Derek practically snarled,

“Who the fuck told you that? Did he tell you that?” Jackson asked, glaring over at Stiles,

“No, Erica just told me and don’t even fucking look at him” Derek said again and the last part was defiantly a snarl. Stiles wasn’t really sure what was going on. He wasn’t sure if Derek was pissed that Jackson had now fucked up his chances of getting him on the team or that he was actually friends with Stiles.

“Well, you aren’t his friend are you? It’s not like you actually like him?” Jackson said, like it was completely obvious, “You just want him on the team. I mean don’t actually tell me your friends with him, I mean look at him.” Jackson said turning up his nose and gesturing at Stiles. “He’s such a fucking loser!”

The next thing Stiles knew Derek’s fist collided with Jacksons face and coach was blowing the whistle over and over, trying to make the fight stop. Jackson launched himself at Derek who went to fight back but before it got to bad Boyd, Isaac and Scott were pulling Derek away and Danny, Aiden and Ethan were restraining Jackson. Derek managed to shake Scott, Isaac and Boyd off and went back to the locker room while Jackson went to sit on the bleachers. Lydia was next to him in minutes, trying to look at his split lip. Stiles didn’t really know what to do, he just kind of started at Scott and Isaac like what the fuck just happened.

“I think you should go talk to Derek” Scott said, patting Stiles on the shoulder,

“What? Why me? What about Boyd? He’s Derek’s best friend!” Stiles protested, after what he just seen he’d be lying if he said he found Derek a little intimidating.

“Dude, he just started and fight with Jackson because of you” Isaac said, like Stiles was being the biggest idiot. Stiles had to admit if that was why Derek had hit Jackson it was pretty hot, “I really think you should go talk to him”

At that Stiles started to head back up to the locker room. By the looks of thinks coach wasn’t going to let that stop the practice just because of that.

“Hey Derek, you still here?” Stiles called out, he started looking down all the rows of lockers until he could see Derek sat on one of the benches, his head in his hands. Stiles slowly approached him, and stood a little way back from him. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m just-” Derek started, but cut himself off, “Did you believe him? Believe what Jackson said to you? Erica said you left lunch really upset.”

“I did. I’m sorry. I did believe him” Stiles said, he actually felt guilty for it. Derek made a little distressed noise and Stiles just wanted to tell him it was all okay. Instead he tried to explain himself, to show Derek it wasn’t him. “I believed him because it made sense. Why would a guy like you want to be friends with a guy like me?”

“What does that even mean?” Derek said, sounding exasperated. Like he really couldn’t understand why it was so hard to believe they were friends. “Why do you think I wouldn’t like you?”

“Because you are you, top of the school. Everyone loves you.” Stiles said, getting slightly frustrated, “And I’m me. As Jackson so brilliantly put it, a loser.”

“But you aren’t though. None of that is true.” Derek said, raking his hands through his hair, “You can’t believe that. I don’t want you to believe that. You’re amazing Stiles and anyone who says otherwise is out of their fucking mind”

“Thank you” was all Stiles could say and grin, he knew it probably not a smiling time but he couldn’t help it. When Derek looked up at Stiles a smile broke out on his face to and the next thing they knew, they were both laughing. They were laughing for no reason but they couldn’t stop. Eventually they did calm down and it took them both a few seconds to catch their breaths,

“Do you wanna go out?” Derek asked, and then quickly added, “For food or something? We could Chinese or something?”

“Yeah, that would be great” Stiles said, he hadn’t eaten at lunch so food sounded really good.

Stiles didn’t know if he could class this as a date or not. He doubted it but he could always hope. They were sat in the fast food joint they had decided to stop at, it was nothing nice but they were happy. Stiles was going on about a TV show both him and Derek watched and how the continuity was totally off. Derek was listening while eating his burger and making the odd comment here and there. They both liked it like this, Stiles talking about whatever he wanted and Derek saying whatever came to his mind. It was comfortable and made them forget about what happened that day for little bit.

The next day was extremely awkward, at lunch the lacrosse team and their friends had been spilt in two. Jackson, Lydia, Danny, Ethan (who was only there because Danny was) and Matt on one table and Derek, Stiles, Isaac, Scott, Allison, Aiden, Erica and Boyd plus the rest of the lacrosse team on another. Stiles was thankful most people had taken Derek’s side in things. He found out that day that most of them were pissed off at Jackson for what he did, including Danny and Lydia but they would stick with him no matter what.

“You know, I never actually made first line after all that” Stiles commented, as they all ate lunch,

“Huh, I didn’t even remember” Derek shrugged, he didn’t seem as bothered as he was before,

“What are you gonna do? I thought you said you wouldn’t get that scholarship with Matt on the team?” Stiles questioned,

“I can deal with him for one game” Derek said, “Then I’ll get him switched for the next ones. Or if he doesn’t follow my instructions during play then I’ll have reason to switch him out with you anyway.”

“Fair enough” Stiles said, and went back to eating. It was nice to know Derek wasn’t get as stressed about lacrosse anymore. He didn’t know why he wasn’t, especially since the game was coming up but as long as he was happy.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry it took me longer than usual to get an update out there. Hope you all are enjoying this so far. I haven't quite finished writing it yet but I'm not to far off. Thanks for reading and I hope this is okay. Again apologies for any mistakes, I don't have a beta.

 Stiles was on his bed, opposite Derek, frantically trying to finish his English essay. It was Thursday and they had been trying to get Stiles’ English essay done for about half an hour. But every time Stiles would say he’d finished it Derek would read it and tell him something else to add.

“Okay, I think I’m actually finished now” Stiles said, handing his essay over to Derek who quickly read through what Stiles had just added.

“Yeah that’s great” Derek said, smiling and handing it back to Stiles,

“Are you being serious, you aren’t going to give me something else to add?” Stiles asked, when Derek shook his head, Stiles through his arms in the air and said “Praise the lord, does that mean we’re done now?”

“No chem and then we’re done” Derek said and Stiles feel back onto his bed and started whining about how it wasn’t fair. Eventually he sat up and Derek started testing Stiles on his element symbols.

When they were done Stiles made Derek and his dad dinner, with the help of Derek who had insisted he wasn’t going to just stand around and do nothing. Stiles made them spaghetti and meatballs, Derek ate way more than Stiles thought humanly possible but he didn’t mind since it meant there wasn’t much left over. Stiles had, had to take his dad’s dinner to him since he refused to leave the living room where he was just trying to figure out all of the murder cases.

On Friday Scott and Isaac gave their birthday gifts to Stiles. Scott got Stiles a new special edition CD of a band he liked, the Hobbit extended edition and a mug that said ‘sweet 16’ on, Stiles was grateful for all three, even if the third made him kind of sad he couldn’t do anything. Isaac had gotten all three of them fake ID’s, he said he wanted them to use them on Stiles’ birthday or try to anyway but they could always try the next weekend. Both Scott and Stiles were down with that idea.

When Saturday finally hit, Stiles paced around the house, bored out of his mind. He had wandered round the house for a bit, sat in his jeep even though he couldn’t actually drive it yet and then watched all the bonus features on the DVD Scott had gotten him. When it actually got to the evening Stiles felt even more hopeless. His birthday was going to be wasted. He just collapsed on his bed and imagined the pizza he could have been eating right now. After about 15 minutes of just lying on his face, Stiles could have sworn he heard a tap on his window and then another. He pulled open the curtains and right there, directly outside his second story window was Derek holding a pizza box with a large card on top. Stiles pulled open his window and Derek climbed in,

“What the hell?” Stiles asked, he tried to keep his voice down so his dad wouldn’t hear,

“I wasn’t going to let you spend your birthday on your own” Derek said, as though it was the most obvious thing. Derek sat on Stiles bad, back against the wall and placed the pizza box on the bed side table, like he hadn’t just climbed through a window.

“No I meant the whole window climbing thing” Stiles said, “How did you even?”

“I’m athletic” Derek said and Stiles figured that was all he was going to get,

“Well thank you for coming and for bringing pizza” Stiles said, making grabby hands towards the box.

“No, this first” Derek said and thrust the card he was holding into Stiles’ hand. Stiles smiled and settled next to Derek on the bed. He opened his card and mouth dropped, inside were a pair of VIP tickets for Fall Out Boy. His favourite band ever. Stiles was going to meet his favourite band.

“Oh my fucking god, are you being serious right now?” Stiles said, like a true fangirl, “I, wow, I just. Thank you so much. You really didn’t have to get these, they must have been really expensive”

“I wanted to. It was honestly no problem” Derek said, grinning at Stiles who just gapped at the tickets,

“You’re coming with me right?” Stiles asked, making sure the second ticket was for Derek,

“Only if you want me to” Derek said, “If you’d rather take someone else you can”

“Of course I want you to go with me” Stiles said, now gently picking up the tickets, “I still can’t believe it I’m going to me them”

“Yes, you are” Derek said, seeing Stiles that happy made him extremely happy. Once it’s settled in that Stiles has gotten the tickets he sets them aside and practically dive hugs Derek.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you” Stiles says over and over until Derek eventually has to pry Stiles off of him and tells him to shut up. There’s only a certain amount of times he can say you’re welcome before he gets bored.

“Do you want to watch a movie and eat that pizza you so kindly bought?” Stiles asks when he finally calms down. Stiles grabs his laptop and they decide to watch some comedy neither of them had seen before. Stiles things it’s really quite awful, it was better when he had pizza to but now it’s not grabbing his attention at all. What his attention is focused on, his how the sides of his Derek’s bodies are pressed against each other’s since now they are sat at the top of Stiles’ bed and there’s not actually that much room for two people. And how Derek moves his arm to rest it behind Stiles, and Stiles can’t help but lean into Derek a bit more. And then all of a sudden he’s hyper aware of Dereks thigh pressed against his and-

“This movie is really shit isn’t it?” Stiles says, trying to think of anything other than his previous thoughts,

“Yeah” Derek agrees, “I can’t keep my attention on it”

“Same” Stiles hums, “Can I turn it off?”

“Feel free” Derek says, leaning his head back against Stiles’ headboard. Stiles just closes his laptop and then gently drops it on the floor beside him. Neither of them move though, Stiles doesn’t want to move, he doesn’t want to give up where he is. Not just yet. Not until he really has to come back to the reality this is the closest he’s ever going to get to Derek.

“You tired?” Derek asks, lifting his head up again and looking down at Stiles, who’s head is almost resting against his shoulder,

“Kind of” Stiles mutters, “Probably just because of the movie though”

Stiles looks up at Derek when he realises Derek is looking at him. Derek’s eyes flicker between Stiles’ lips and eyes and all Stiles can think is ‘he better not be messing with me right now’ and then Derek brings his face closer to Stiles’ and then all he can think is ‘holy shit this is about to happen’. Then Derek is closing that gap and pressing his lips against Stiles’ and all Stiles can do is close his eyes. Its short, way to short considering Stiles never wants it to end, and it was sweet. Derek just smiles at him when they break apart, eyes opening slowly and Stiles is beaming, probably looking way to happy but he doesn’t care.

“You kissed me” Stile says, as if he can’t believe,

“I did” Derek says. And then he’s kissing Stiles again, this time Stiles fists his hands in Derek’s shirt so he can’t move away again. One of Derek’s hand ends up on the back of Stiles’ neck and then Derek’s tongue is licking at Stiles’ lips and all Stiles can do is open his mouth and try to hold back a moan when Derek’s tongue is against his. Stiles let’s out a whimper when he feels one of Derek’s hands on his hip, then he freezes and goes bright red like he can’t believe he made that sound. Derek just presses their foreheads together and whispers “It’s okay” against Stiles lips.

Derek moves Stiles so he’s lying under him on the bed. Stiles goes willingly, he’s not really sure what he’s supposed to do but he likes what’s happening and does not want it to stop. Derek starts to kiss down Stiles’ jaw to his neck. Stiles breathing starts to come out heavily when he feels Derek’s lips and breathe and tongue against his neck. He feels totally surrounded by Derek and just wants to hold on and hope it never ends. Derek’s teeth scrape against Stiles neck, then the bite down into the skin. All Stiles can do is moan, as Derek gently soothes the mark with his licks and kisses, it’s the best kind of pain he’s felt. Stiles really isn’t sure what he’s supposed to do with his hands so he just fits one into his sheets and the other hand ends up on Derek’s back. One of Derek’s thighs slips between Stiles’ legs and Stiles can’t stop his hips from grinding about against Derek’s or the loud moan that follows. Derek doesn’t seem to mind though; he just hums against Stiles’ neck and pushes his hips down to meet Stiles’. The accompanying friction makes Stiles writhe and moan against Derek,

“Derek” Stiles stutters out, trying to get his thoughts together,

“Yeah?” Derek mutters, kissing his way back up to Stiles’ mouth,

“I don’t, I’ve never” Stiles starts, but he’s finding it hard to formulate sentences with all his blood rushing to his dick, “I don’t know”

“What is it? Do you want me to stop?” Derek asks. He stops what he’s doing and lifts himself up on an arm so he can see Stiles’ face,

“No, maybe oh I don’t know” Stiles say’s, he doesn’t really know what he wants, he’s never done anything like this before, “I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing Derek, I don’t want to fuck it up”. Derek looks at Stiles for a minute, like it’s just hit him that Stiles has never done this with anyone before.

“It’s okay, we should stop” Derek says and sits up, but then Stiles’ hands are in his shirt and pulling him back down,

“Wait” Stiles says, and suddenly he thinks he’s messed everything up with Derek. That because Derek’s just realised he’s some pathetic virgin, he doesn’t want to be with him anymore.

“It’s okay” Derek says, running a hand through Stiles’ hair, “We don’t have to do anything, we can just take it slow okay? We’ve got lots of time”

“So you aren’t stopping because you’ve realised I’m a pathetic virgin?” Stiles asked, “And you’re not going to go running away from me?”

“What? No, you’re not pathetic Stiles” Derek says, kissing the side of Stiles’ mouth, “Of course I’m not going anywhere”. This time when Derek moves away, Stiles lets him and Derek just settles next to Stiles on the bed. Derek pulls Stiles close to him, so Stiles head is resting on Derek’s shoulder and Derek has an arm wrapped around his waist. Stiles can’t actually believe how lucky he is, can’t believe this is actually happening but Derek is there feeling real and warm and making Stiles feel safe. He can feel his eyelids trying to slide shut, he hadn’t realised how tired he was until now.  Then Derek is nuzzling his face into Stiles hair and Stiles feels content enough to fall asleep. So he does but not before whispering,

“Best Birthday ever”.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like i rushed this chapter and its making it really bad, gah but its an important moment and im pretty sure ive fucked it up. Sooo sorry!!  
> Also this chapter could really use with a re-read or a beta but i dont really have time at the moment so im very sorry for any mistakes. And this one is very long and i was writing this over a long space of time with large gaps so im sorry if its really awful.

The next day Stiles woke up to Derek spooning him and it was probably the best he’d ever felt while waking up. Then he started to panic about what would happen if his dad came in the room and saw them. There would shotgun threats, a whole load of embarrassment for Stiles and he didn’t fancy his dad finding out any time soon.

“He’s gone to work” Derek said, clearly sensing Stiles panic and sounding sleepy which Stiles thought was the cutest thing ever, “And don’t worry, he didn’t come in”

Stiles just hummed happily and snuggled further back into Derek’s grip. Derek started to kiss up and Stiles’ neck again, but not heated like before, it was just sweet this time. Although Stiles started to suspect that Derek might have a thing for necks or just his neck, he wasn’t sure and really didn’t mind.

“Do you want to get up?” Derek whispered against Stiles ear. Stiles could help the shiver that ran through his body when Derek’s breathe hit the shell of his hear,

“No not really” Stiles said, trying to turn around so he could get closer to Derek. Derek released him and Stiles turned so he could bury his face in Derek’s chest,

“You sure?” Derek asked, “Your dad only said you couldn’t actually do anything on your birthday, you could do something today”

“Later” Stiles said, and he heard Derek huff out a little laugh. Derek encased Stiles further in his arms, holding him tightly. And then it his Stiles,

“Are you possessive?” Stiles asked, looking up at Derek, “Is that why you decided to give me so many hickeys? And why you punched Jackson in the face? And this whole refusing to let me go thing?”

Derek just went bright red and tried to look anywhere other than Stiles. Derek couldn’t help it, it was in his nature to be a bit possessive but he couldn’t tell Stiles that.

“Oh my god you are” Stiles said, and he couldn’t help the grin that plastered itself across his face, “It’s fine though, I don’t mind. It’s actually kind of hot. Unless you’re going to be the kind of possessive that doesn’t let me go anywhere without you, or see my friends, or talk to anyone else.”

“Of course not” Derek said, “I’d never do that. That wouldn’t be fair.”

“Good” Stiles hummed, “It’s game day tomorrow”

“Holy shit it is” Derek said, “I think we’ll win”

“I think we will to” Stiles agreed, “You mailed your application yet?”

“No” Derek answered, “Still don’t know what to put in the personal statement”

“There’s plenty you could put” Stiles said, “You could talk about how you’re a natural leader; everyone loves you and listens to you so it would be the truth. You could talk about how you find it easy to keep up your grades. How you helped tutor me with both school work and lacrosse. You could talk about your strategies and how you think them up yourself because they are amazing. See there’s plenty”

“Thank you, I’ll put all of that on there” Derek said, actually making a mental note of everything Stiles had said, “Now come on, let’s get up”

“Why?” Stiles whined,

“Because you are wasting a perfectly good Sunday” Derek muttered, trying to sit up but Stiles wouldn’t let go,

“No, I don’t call this wasting” Stiles whined again.

Eventually Stiles did get up; he sent a text to Scott and Isaac asking them if they were free to do something that day. Scott text and saying yes and asked if Allison could come and Isaac said yes to. Stiles told Scott that Allison was welcome to go with them but her parents had taken her car away for the week after the whole forest incident.

“Derek” Stiles said, once they were both ready. Giving Derek his best puppy dog eyes. “You don’t mind picking everyone up do you?”

“No, its fine” Derek said rolling his eyes, and put an arm around Stiles waist so he could kiss him.

“I’m never going to get used to that” Stiles said as Derek pulled away. Derek just looked extremely smug and Stiles couldn’t work out if he wanted to hit him or kiss him again.

They’d agreed to pick them all up at about five so Stiles and Derek still had most of the day together. They had lunch at one of the local diners. Much to Derek’s distress but Stiles’ amusement, Danny, Ethan and Aiden were there and they had made some lewd comments when Derek had walked into the diner hand in hand with Stiles. Derek got them back with some good insults though.

They picked up Scott first so he could direct them to Allison’s house. She practically ran out of the door,

“You guys are my saviours” Allison said, “My dad keeps questioning me on what happened in the woods, it happened like a week ago. It’s getting really annoying.”

“I still want to go and find out what is killing all those people” Stiles said, “I just don’t want to almost be killed again.” Stiles noticed Derek’s fists clench onto the steering tighter after he said that and he felt a little bad for bringing it up again, he didn’t want to worry Derek.

When they reached Isaac’s house they sat outside for a little bit, debating what they should do. It was mainly just Isaac and Stiles arguing about what they were going to do.

“We should go to the nice clearing in the woods” Scott pipes up, “the one we’re always in.”

“Yeah” Stiles agreed,

“But we don’t have any alcohol” Isaac said, “That’s the whole point of going to the clearing and I forgot my fake ID”

There were a couple of minutes of silence and then Isaac, Scott and Stiles said ‘Deeeerrrreeeekkk’ in unison. He immediately rolled his eyes, knowing exactly what they were going to ask.

“Fine” Derek said, he knew he wouldn’t be able to resist if Stiles pulled those stupid fucking puppy eyes at him so he figured he’d just give in now and save him the trouble. It was a commonly known thing that Derek was able to buy alcohol from shops with no ID, Jackson had bragged about it a lot. Derek looked the right age and apparently the people in stores never really had the balls to turn him down.

Derek came out of the store with two packs of beer and a large bottle of Jack Daniels for Stiles and Allison,

“How much do we owe you?” Scott asked,

“Don’t worry about” Derek said, waving Scott off when he tried to hand him money,

“You sure?” Isaac asked, “You are driving us around as well”

“Honestly I don’t mind” Derek smiled and there were many thanks from everyone in the car. When they reached the clearing Derek parked up his car and they decided not to sit too far away from it just in case something happened like before.

They all sat around a fire Allison had made, with insistent but unneeded help of Isaac and Derek, they all had their backs against logs and let the fire relax them. Allison was cuddled up next to Scott sipping at her cup of Jack Daniels. Stiles had just taken the whole bottle since Allison said she didn’t want anymore. Stiles sat in-between Derek and Isaac. He wanted to sit with Derek how Allison was with Scott but Stiles wasn’t sure if Derek wanted anyone to know yet. So he just sat there drinking the bottle, probably way to quickly and stared into the fire while Isaac and Scott had an excited conversation about the lacrosse game the next day. Even with the fire Stiles still felt cold and he would be lying if he said he wasn’t still a little scared to be in the woods after his near death experience. When the wind blew Stiles couldn’t help but shiver and then there was an arm over his shoulder. Stiles took that as an invitation to move closer to Derek, so he did, snuggling right up to his so Derek could completely surround him with his arms.

“Wait, wait, wait” Isaac said, Allison had her face in her hands, and Scott was trying to make Isaac shut up but it was too late he had already drawn Stiles and Derek’s attention. “Are you two like a thing now?” Stiles froze because he realised he hadn’t actually had this conversation with Derek yet, he wasn’t sure what they were. He hoped they were a couple no but he wasn’t sure how this worked.

“Yes Isaac, we are” Derek said, sounding exasperated, like he did with everyone most of the time. Stiles didn’t really care though because Derek had just agreed they were a thing, whatever that meant, he was going to go for couple, and that made him happy.

“I told you, Scott” Isaac said, “What did I tell you, I said it would happen before the game and not after. Now pay up.” And Scott did, he handed Isaac ten bucks and didn’t look happy about it.

“You had a bet on this?” Stiles asked,

“Yes” Scott said, “And I just lost myself ten dollars because you two couldn’t keep your dicks in your pants for one more day, thanks guys.” Next to Stiles, Derek was laughing, like proper non-stop laughed at the whole situation and then they were all laughing. Stiles loved these moments, loved these moments were he was truly happy, surrounded by some of the people he loved the most.

But of course something had to ruin it, and that something was a howl. All five of them immediately stopped laughing and Derek was pulling Stiles even closer. Then there was movement in the forest again and none of them knew what to do, they just all sat there frozen. Except Derek whose eyes kept following something around the woods, something that Stiles couldn’t see. Stiles noted that Derek’s eyes were that gold colour again but now wasn’t the time to ask.

“Come on” Derek said, getting up and pulling Stiles up with him, “We need to leave right now”

They all quickly got back into the car, instead of driving out of the woods Derek drove further in. Stiles was to scared of what was outside of the car to ask why though and none of the others seemed to notice. Then they were driving up to the Hale house,

“Where are we?” Isaac asked, as Stiles and Derek climbed out of the car,

“My house, c’mon” Derek said, and the other three followed.

When they entered they were greeted by a man Stiles hadn’t seen before, he just happened to be walking down the stairs when they entered the hallway.

“Nice to see you have some friends” the man said to Derek, scanning everyone’s face, his eyes lingering on Stiles,

“Everyone this is my weird uncle, Peter” he said, but his mind seemed elsewhere. Peter approached Stiles, the man pulled down Stiles collar and made a tutting sound at the hickeys there. Stiles quickly pulled back; already he didn’t really like this man,

“Not very discreet there, Derek” Peter said. Derek glared at Peter who just put his hands up in surrender, “I’m just saying”

“Sorry about him” Derek said to Stiles and then told they can go upstairs and wait while he asked his mum something.

When they got into Derek’s room, Scott and Allison took a seat on Derek’s bed. While Isaac approached Stiles and pulled down Stiles’ collar a lot like Peter,

“Jesus dude those are some nasty hickeys” Isaac said, looking at them witch way to much attention than Stiles was comfortable with,

“Oh fuck off, Isaac” Stiles said, pushing Isaac away a bit and trying to cover them up again. It didn’t take to long for Derek to finish talking to his parents, although he didn’t seem shaken and slightly scared.

“I’m going to take you three home, Stiles do you mind staying here until I get back?” Derek asked, he was talking at his usual speed but something in his voice sounded frantic and nervous,

“Yeah sure” Stiles said, “You guys go ahead”

Scott and Isaac gave him questioning looks as they left but Stiles just shrugged, he wasn’t sure what was going on either. While Derek was gone Stiles led on his bed, staring up at the ceiling trying to figure out what was happening and why Derek seemed so on edge.

When Derek got back, he still looked shaken, it’s like he was angry, scared and sad all at the same time. He looked vulnerable and Stiles had never seen him like that, never thought he would see him like. Stiles just wanted to hug him and tell him it was all okay. But he wasn’t sure what he should do. So Stiles just sat up on Derek’s bed and waited for him to say something.

“I need to tell you something” Derek said, and Stiles gulped, he was pretty sure that was never a good thing. “Well the whole family does and if you never want to see me again after then that’s fine but you need to know”

“That won’t happen, Derek, you know that” Stiles said, standing up and putting Derek’s hands in his,

“Don’t say that until you know” Derek said and pulled his hands away, Derek led Stiles downstairs where Talia and Hank were waiting for him in the living room. When they entered, Talia tried to smile at Stiles as though it would ease him but it didn’t work.

“Stiles, uhm please sit down” Talia said, and Stiles did. He wasn’t going to argue with her, Derek sat next to him and Talia sat in one of the arm chairs.

“Look there’s something you need to know” Talia said, “We didn’t want you to have to know for quite a while yet but you’re in danger so we’ve decided now is a good time if we want to keep you safe.” Stiles wanted to say something but he didn’t know what. He was in danger? From what? Why was he in danger? There were so many questions and he didn’t know where to start. “You are being hunted by a wolf, it’s the one killing everyone” Talia continued, “It won’t hurt you here but for some reason it’s chosen you and it seems to be very persistent. The thing is, it’s not just any wolf and this is going to sound ridiculous no matter how I try and word it so, it’s a werewolf. Yes, yes, you’re going to call me crazy, think I’m lying to you so we’ll show you. But we are only telling you this for your own protection. You can tell no one else.”

Stiles was gobsmacked if he was honest, what the hell was he supposed to say? He was pretty sure this was the first time in his life he had ever been lost for words. He didn’t really know what was happening other than the fact Talia was making her eyes glow red and claws started to extend from her hands and sharp replaced normal ones. Stiles just sat there and stared for a couple of minutes. Talia did shift for long but it took a little while for Stiles’ brain to catch up.

“Is that why your eyes go gold sometimes?” Stiles asked, and Talia made a disappointed noise,

“Other people aren’t supposed to see that” Derek explained, “But yes it is”

“So you’re all werewolves? The whole family?” Stiles asked. Talia nodded her head. “Okay, wow, this is interesting, and there is one trying to kill me?”

“Yes, but not part of our pack though” Talia said, “I wouldn’t allow that?”

“There’s more of you? Do I know any?” Stiles asked, “Are you the Alpha? Is that why your eyes are red?” Stiles wasn’t freaked out so much as intrigued. He’d seen a fair few of his dad’s weird and sometimes quite gory cases so he’s become slightly desensitised to being shocked by things now.

“You know four, Erica, Boyd, Ethan and Aiden” Talia explained, “There are few others but you wouldn’t know them. Yes  that’s why my eyes are red”

“Huh” Stiles said, “So what are you going to do about the one trying to kill me? I really don’t feel being ripped apart by an angry werewolf anytime soon”

“Well you’re handling this better than I expected” Talia said, nodding appreciatively, “If he doesn’t back off then we’ll probably have to kill him. We aren’t going to let him hurt you but you have to be around at least one member of the pack at all times, okay?”

“Okay. I can do that.” Stiles said,

“You can go home if you want or stay here. Either is fine as long as Derek is with you” Talia said and left Derek and Stiles in the living room.

“I’d like to go home” Stiles said to Derek who just nodded.

Half the car journey was spent in silence until Stiles finally mustered up the courage to ask Derek what he’d be wondering the whole time,

“Is that what the whole hickey thing is about?” Stiles asked, “Are you marking me?”

“Yes. It’s one of the ways anyway.” Derek said bluntly but snorts out a laugh, “I can’t believe that’s the first question you asked me. Out of everything. I don’t think I should be shocked though.”

“What are the other ways? And why do you do it?” Stiles asked, ignoring the last part of what Derek had said. He thought it had been a very reasonable question.

“We do it to tell other werewolves who our mates are” Derek explained, mumbling the last bit and ignoring the first question entirely.

“Mates?” Stiles asked, “Am I your mate? Are you marking me as being yours?” Stiles asked, and that did make him kind of happy, the idea of being Derek’s mate. (Also he thought it was pretty fucking hot but no one had to know that.)

“Yes” Derek answered, pulling into Stiles’ driveway. “Thank you for not running away from me”

“Like I said, I’d never do that” Stiles said, and leaned across to the car to lightly kiss Derek. When they broke the kiss Derek buried his face into Stiles’ neck and inhaled.

“Your scent drives me crazy, you know that?” Derek mumbled into Stiles’ neck,

“My scent?” Stiles asked, slightly confused about what was so special about his scent,

“I think it’s because you’re my mate” Derek explained, “That’s was my mom told me anyway”

“Oh” Stiles asked, still trying to wrap his head around what’s going on. He suspected he would have taken the whole thing with a more hyperactive questioning approach, after all this is the most interesting thing to happen to him, but he had also just found out something was trying to kill him so he was trying his best to stay calm and collected. He found talking to Derek about this whole ‘mates’ thing way easier to take than the idea of some rabid werewolf trying to rip him apart, which he’d rather not think about. “You want to go inside and talk about this?”

“As long as you’re okay with me coming inside” Derek said, looking at Stiles like he still couldn’t believe Stiles wanted to be around him,

“Of course” Stiles said, “Why don’t you understand that I’m fine with this, you’re still you. Still the person I know but with supernatural abilities. Which is pretty fucking cool by the way. There’s just some stuff I need to wrap my head around.”

Derek didn’t really say anything at that, but he smiled and Stiles took that as a good sign. Stiles hopped out of the car and hoped Derek would follow, which of course he did.

When they got back up to Stiles’ room, Stiles sat on his bed and Derek sat next to him. Stiles took a minute to gather up his thoughts to work out what he was going to ask,

“So Erica and Boyd are werewolves to?” Stiles asked, “Have they always been werewolves?”

“No” Derek said, shaking his head, “They were turned when a rouge alpha looking for a pack had come through here. My mom killed him because he was killing to many people and then took Erica and Boyd into our pack.”

“Are they mates?” Stiles asked, the two of them were almost inseparable, well at least whenever Stiles saw them they seemed to be together,

“They are” Derek nodded,

“What does ‘mates’ even mean in werewolf terms?” Stiles asked and Derek tensed up, “I keep saying it but I’m not even sure, I only know what it means in animal terms but I guess it’s not the same”

“Uh well” Derek started, but cut himself off to rub his hands through his hair and sigh, “In werewolf terms, I guess mate is kind of another word for soul mate. My mom always told me that werewolves only ever have one mate, usually another werewolf but sometimes it can be a human or even another supernatural being. Apparently we can fall in love with different people and feel attraction to other people that aren’t our mates but once we meet our mate that’s it, there’s no more love or attraction felt towards anyone else anymore. They’ll end up being the one and only, so to speak.”

“Oh wow okay” Stiles said. He wasn’t really sure how to feel, whether to be happy or overwhelmed or shocked or panicked so he figured he could feel them all at once. After all that was a pretty big thing to be told.

“I know it’s a lot and I really didn’t want to dump it on you so soon” Derek explained, “I know it sounds huge and if you’re not okay with this then that’s fine. I wouldn’t blame you.”

“How do you know I’m defiantly your mate?” Stiles asked, twisting his fingers together,

“When you collapsed on the field during our first practice together and I helped you up. You were so close when I helped you back to the changing room and I just felt so over whelmed, it hard to explain.” Derek explained, “But that day I went back and asked Laura about it and she got my mom and they both explained it to me. Apparently my parents planned to tell us individually when we went off to college because they didn’t expect any of us to find a mate so young.”

Stiles reached out a hand and entwined his fingers with Derek’s. Stiles had never seen Derek look so vulnerable or childlike as he did in that moment, laying everything out for Stiles to see. His usual tough, older guy demeanour was suddenly gone. Stiles understood that it must have been as overwhelming and frightening for Derek as it was for Stiles. He couldn’t even imagine what it would have been like to be in Derek’s situation.

“Well forever then” Stiles said, squeezing Derek’s hand a little tighter. He didn’t know how he felt about promising someone forever when he was only sixteen, still a kid. But he did it anyway, it felt right and like he was telling the truth. And all he could think was, if this mate thing was right, Derek was stuck loving him forever and it was the least he could do. Stiles knew only time would tell if he could stick to his promise but he was damn willing to give it a shot.

“Forever then” Derek agreed. He didn’t sound sure though, Stiles thought he was probably thinking the same thing as Stiles but if he was he didn’t say anything. “Is there anything else you want to know? Anything about the wolf trying to-”

“I’d really rather not talk about” Stiles said, cutting him off. He figured as little as he could know about the wolf trying to kill him, the better. As long as Talia thought her pack would be able to get rid of him, he really didn’t care.  Stiles knew eventually his curiosity would get the better of him and he would go asking questions and trying to do anything to help. But for now he was content to just leave it be. “How about the marking thing? You avoided by question earlier.”

“Which question?” Derek asked, there had been a lot of questions.

“You said something about how the hickeys were one way of marking and asked what the other ways were” Stiles said, hoping to get a decent answer this time. Derek just turned bright red and scratched the back of his neck.

“Well the hickeys are visual markings. Werewolf eye sight is better than humans so we can pick them out on each other better. That’s why Peter noticed when you thought they were covered up.” Derek explained, “There’s also scent marking”

“Wait, you aren’t going to like pee on me are you?” Stiles asked, he knew that was how wolves scented their territory and really hoped that it didn’t apply to werewolves,

“Oh my god what no” Derek said quickly, “No, we don’t do that.”

“So how do you mark through scent then?” Stiles asked and he tried not to laugh at the panic in Derek’s voice when he asked about the pee,

“You know like making you smell a bit like me” Derek said, “Enough for other werewolves to smell. It’s just a thing we always have the urge to; my mum assures me its normal. For werewolves anyway.”

“Oh so kind of like an instinct thing. What ways are there to mark through scent?” Stiles pressed, he was really intrigued by the whole thing,

“Why do you have to keep asking?” Derek said, sounding very frustrated and embarrassed, “Isn’t what I’ve said enough”

“Nope, I want to know how exactly” Stiles said, trying to smile innocently. He untangled his fingers from Derek’s and turned on the bed so he was sitting with his legs crossed fully facing Derek.

“Fine” Derek said, but glared at the floor like it was responsible for the mess he was now in, “So one of the ways is just for me to be around you a lot, other werewolves would be able to smell that. Erica wears Boyd’s jumpers and jackets a lot. I thought it was just a couple thing but she told me that she does it because she likes the way it makes her smell like Boyd. I guess it’s another instinct thing kicking in. And the other way is uhh-”

“Is what?” Stiles pushed, when he thought Derek wasn’t going to continue,

“It doesn’t matter” Derek said,

“Yes it does, if I’m in this with you then I want to know everything” Stiles said, he didn’t understand why he couldn’t just say it.

“Alright” Derek muttered angrily, “The other way is sex, you know when I would- uh- when I - well it would make my scent on you the strongest. That’s just how it works. It’s not necessary or anything”

“Oh” Stiles said, finally registering what Derek meant. “See that wasn’t so hard was it?”

“I know, I just didn’t want it to make it seem like I was pressuring you or anything” Derek explained, “Which I’m totally not by the way”

“But that’s what you want though?” Stiles asked, he knew he was pushing it a bit now but figured it was worth a shot. If he was honest he was pretty shocked that talking about sex made the Derek embarrassed, especially since the one who had never had sex before was perfectly comfortable talking about it.

“I don’t want it if you aren’t ready, I’m not going to make you do anything you don’t want to do. It’s your choice, there’s no pressure what so ever, I promise.” Derek babbled. Stiles had to hold back his laughter, it wasn’t so much what Derek was saying that he found funny. It was the fact that before the events of that day, Derek was the confident, smug guy that everyone knew. But now Derek was babbling, seeming so unsure of him, just like how Stiles had felt around Derek before and he found it pretty funny. Stiles loved it, loved to be able to see a side of Derek that wasn’t there that often, that nobody else got to see.

“I know” Stiles simply said, “I was just trying to see how far I could push you”

Derek didn’t reply, he just shook his head clearly not finding it as entertaining as Stiles. “Will you stay here tonight?” Stiles asked, “I’d really not be here on my own if there’s a murderous wolf trying to kill me”

“Of course I’ll stay” Derek said, “And we won’t let him hurt you so don’t let it worry you too much. After all there’s a lacrosse game we need to win tomorrow.”

That night Stiles had fallen asleep with Derek holding him again and it had felt so right. He never wanted to get up or move or for Derek to leave. Most of all he really didn't want to have to leave Derek’s arms.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey wow thank you for reading. Please comment? This is my first fic and I would love come feed back.


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